Version 5.5 of WindowBlinds has been designed to enable Windows Vista to become skinnable. This is no easy task for a number of reasons. The biggest reason has to do with the new Desktop Window Manager (DWM). While technically WindowBlinds could have hacked its way to work on Vista, it was important that WindowBlinds work natively on Vista and that means using the new 3D composited desktop. By using the DWM you get hardware acceleration and a ton of other possible effects.

The second challenge was making visual styles (skins) made for Windows XP work on Windows Vista without parts missing. So Stardock developed "Smart Skinning" in which graphical elements in XP skins are translated to take care of new parts in Windows Vista.[/quote]